Wine is often a co-star with food in the movies, especially films about food:

The Big Night (1996)

Like Water for Chocolate (1992)

Soul Food (1997)

Chocolat (2000)

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (1994)

Tampopo (1985)

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978)

Dinner Rush (2000)

Rare Birds (2001).

The three movies I most want to see right now in this genre are Chef, The Hundred Foot Journey and The Trip to Italy.

The lush landscape of Italian wine country makes a bucolic backdrop for Kenneth Brannagh’s musical remake of Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

Although the setting was supposedly Tuscan, in fact the movie was shot in Sicily—presumably the real Tuscan vineyards were overrun with too many tourists.

In Babette’s Feast, which won the 1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, wine is almost as important as the food.

Babette, whose husband and children have been killed in the war of 1871, flees Paris to northern Denmark, where she cooks and cleans for two elderly sisters who run an austere religious community.

Fifteen years later, when she wins a lottery, she doesn’t use the money to return home; instead she spends it preparing a magnificent meal for the entire community.

It’s later revealed that she was the chef at renowned Café Anglais in Paris.

She ships in caviar, live turtle, quail and other exotic ingredients from Paris—as well as several bottles of the 1860 Veuve Clicquot champagne and the 1846 Clos Vougeot from Burgundy, among others. She also gives a local boy a crash course on how to be a sommelier course and serve fine wine.

The extravagant food and wine are made more sumptuous not just because they are infused with Babette’s selflessness, but also because of the contrast with the bleak Northern landscape and its sensory-deprived inhabitants.

As they eat and drink, the community members’ icy exteriors melt, and their long-suppressed emotions and senses re-awaken. They are reborn but not through their religion.

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Natalie MacLean

Canada's Most Quoted Wine Writer

Natalie MacLean is editor of Canada's largest wine review web site, publishing hundreds of wine reviews every week for more than 160,000 members. She was named the World's Best Drinks Writer the World Food Media Awards in Australia.

Natalie has published two books with Random House, the second was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year. Get access to all of her reviews today by becoming a member of her site.